Just a few days away from the election, I am still struggling to put all my thoughts in order about why I feel so strongly about having Obama become our President. I saw him in 2004 and knew he would be, or at least should be, our President, but I figured he'd emerge after a few terms in the Senate. Fortunately, I have been proven totally wrong, and in fact he's speaking right now on the Daily Show about the time is NOW. I know the reasons I've wanted to vote for him, but every now and then I get a gut punch reminder.
I wanted to share this -
http://www.boston.com/...
Take a moment to look. It's of a Massachusetts National Guard unit in formation, about to depart for 1 year in Iraq. It's heartbreaking and you'll see why. Of course, for me personally, this was one of the strongest reasons to support Obama during the primaries, and it's been all but put by the side with the economic woes in terms of the election discourse. Thankfully, Obama does see the connection.
See, Massachusetts is considered so solid a "blue" state, that although we command more electoral votes, my neighbor state to the north (5 minutes on foot) is getting far more attention - which I think is fine - there's a lot of spill over interest into Massachusetts.
But I also live in a small, rural town that could be described as a "red" pocket of Massachusetts. We more closely resemble our northern neighbor towns, versus the eastern/southern MA towns. I'm sure in other places of Massachusetts the same exists. Here there are lots of farms, from a few to a few hundred acres in size. It's not unusual to see people on horseback on the road. Within two miles of us are veggie/fruit producers, cows, sheep, goats, you name it. And lots of chickens, including ours.
If the lawn signs tell the tale, then McCain is winning here. But yet, as I monitored the signs, some surprises... First, the sign I had to go back to to read, which appeared maybe two weeks ago now... "I support McCain but will never support another lying, deceitful vice president." It's hand printed, and hasn't gotten touched (some others I've seen, have). An Obama sign has recently joined its side. The big farmhouse down the road just carved up pumpkins, one each, in the form of O B A M A. They're placed where no one can get to them, but visible to anyone driving by. Maybe they'll be lit up Friday. And in the town center, three or four stately historic homes with Obama signs right planted next to the sidewalk.
My town doesn't put the most in to state coffers, but doesn't get much back either. As a town, much like the people, we're just trying to make ends meet, and we're more squeezed than in times past. I can almost see people are re-evaluating where the future is heading. And we're talking to each other, maybe not always overtly about specific candidates, but about how we will get through this very broken time as a town and as a country. This leads me to why I so much want him to win. It's more than his view on the war, or any other number of issues we may agree around. Many people could probably be a close enough fit in that regard.
No, more important to me now is that he's demonstrated a far better ability to encourage the dialogue, than McCain has in this election season. McCain could have chosen different paths in his VP pick, in his campaign tenor, etc. But he did not. Obama leads without heaviness, something I haven't really seen in a political figure in my life.
I go back to Obama's comments of a red versus blue state from 04... this concept doesn't exist other than making pretty graphics for TV. The National Guard picture doesn't tell a tale of a blue state any more than my sign observations do of a red town. Like the Massachusetts electorate, the picture won't get notice nationally.
Yet the very REAL story the photo does tell, what I am seeing playing out among my neighbors though of course in very different ways, is that of real people facing real impacts of the past 8 years, how that will carry into the next months and years of our lives, and what we do to get through.
That is why we need Obama's leadership, as a steady guiding influence, as WE figure out answers to these difficult questions, the questions getting asked and discussed not in the glare of the media spotlight, but in the living room.